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GO TO e, Ea, Eb, Ec, Ed, Ef, Eg, Eh, Ei, Ej, Ek, El, Em, En, Eo, Ep, Eq, Er, Es, Et, Eu, Ev, Ew, Ex, Ey Ez last entry
e: (inscribed on packages as relating to the weight or volume of contents) - see TNE.
E2: A shorthand calculation used in SPC.
Ea, or Each or "Eaches": the numeration of units or objects simply by the number of them present, rather than by their weight, volume or by some other physical attribute of them. For example, our stock of oranges might be expressed as 112 lbs (their total weight), or as 259 eaches (the total number of oranges present). See millihelen.
EAN: European Article Number, an international convention of product coding used in the retail groceries business, and prominent in bar code applications.
Easter: Eastertime in the Christian calendar comprises two days of very considerable significance: (1) Good Friday, the commemoration of Jesus' crucifixion, and (2) Easter Sunday, two days following, the commemoration of Jesus' resurrection. In the UK, Easter is a public holiday, and includes Easter Monday, the day following Easter Sunday. (Note that the day following Good Friday is called Holy Saturday.) Eastertime's significance as a national holiday is, perhaps, made the stonger by a recognition that Winter truly is over and Spring has arrived. On Easter Sunday, chocolate Easter eggs, boxed chocolates and flowers are typically given as gifts. However, Easter is a moveable feast - that is, the dates from one year to the next at which it is celebrated vary by as much as five weeks and may fall in March or April (*). They are calculated in a complex and arcane fashion by religious authorities as laid down by the Romanian monk Dionysius Exiguus in 525AD, having reference to phases of the Moon and the Jewish celebration of Passover. The dates have a sequence that repeats every 5.7 million years, and are available for any number of years into the future. Their substantial variation each year may present a problem to certain manufacturing companies providing stock for consumer sales that have a very pronounced Easter bias - the simple use of seasonal factors within the company's demand forecasting system will weight both March and April, but neither sufficiently heavily, not March or April. It may be necessary either to employ a dummy variable (qv) or simply (as in Easter eggs) to take control of the system manually. Note that the actual manufacturing response (ie production and the provision of stock) is determined through master scheduling in the standard way - what is at issue in dealing with Easter is demand forecasting and the question of safety stocks. (* The earliest possible date is March 22nd, which next occurs in 2285, and the latest April 25th, which next occurs in 2038.)
EAT: Employment Appeal Tribunal, a UK Government body.
EBITDA: in company finance, Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation. A company's EBITDA closely approximates its cash flow, and consequently allows managers and others to see clearly, at once, the amount of money the company brings in, and, therefore, what level of debt repayments it can afford.
Echelon (pronounced escheloñ): A logical level of a distribution network. The lowest logical level is the place from which stock is originally distributed to the network (ie usually, the factory, often called Level 0). The next echelon perhaps comprises the regional warehouses served directly by the central (master) source of supply (Level -1). The next echelon after this may comprise the depots supplied by the regional warehouses (Level -2), and so on. The final echelon (ie the outermost level in the distribution network) is the one at which stocking points are situated which directly supply customers. The word echelon is derived from echelle (French = ladder) and refers to a military formation.
ECIA: Engineering Construction Industry Association, a UK body.
ECM: Engineering Change Management.
ECN: Engineering Change Notice (ie synonymous with ECO).
ECO: Engineering Change Order.
Economic Order Quantity: When raw material stock is ordered from a supplier, two classes of cost are incurred apart from the cost of the material itself (ie apart from the invoiced amount). These are: (1) the costs incurred literally in placing the order itself and seeing to its delivery, unloading and putting away; and (2) the costs of holding the stock in store before its ultimate use (see Carrying Cost). These two costs are "in opposition" - that is, we can make the ordering costs smaller by ordering larger quantities less frequently, but at the same time increasing the stock holding costs. Or we can make the stock holding costs smaller by ordering small quantities at very frequent intervals, but at the same time increasing the order costs. The economic order quantity, or least cost order quantity, pupports to be that quantity of stock ordered which minimises the total of the two classes of costs. The amount is calculated as SQRT (2AO/iv), where A = the annual amount ordered, O = the cost of placing this order, i = the rate of interest on stock capital and v = the unit value of the stock. The formula for the EOQ is believed to be the earliest materials management formula ever published. It is widely known and just as widely ignored. Perhaps the reason no-one uses it, is that it does not (and cannot) take cognisance of such factors as price discounts for volume, vehicle scheduling and payment/credit terms. The quickest way of reducing stockholding and quality costs appears to be the lean manufacturing principle of arranging frequent, small deliveries, and taking care that such deliveries are themselves accomplished as smoothly and economically as possible.
ECP: Engineering Change Proposal.
ECR: (1) Engineering Change Request (qv); (2) Efficient Consumer Response.
ECSC: European Coal and Steel Community, a trading block of six countries promoted and launched in 1950 through Robert Schuman of France (though largely devised by Jean Monnet).
EDA: Electronic Document Access, or Electronic Design Automation.
EDI: Electronic Data Interchange. The transmission of data from one computer to another, usually involving different companies (ie the buying company, or rather its order placement system, and the supplying company, or rather its order processing system) and usually involving also substantial distances. EDI is often used as an expensive fax facility by large customers such as supermarkets terrorising small suppliers. The technology is expensive, and seems to have been marginalised with the arrival of the (cheap) Internet.
EDIFACT : EDI For Administration, Commerce & Transport. EDIFACT is an EDI "protocol" ... ie a technical standard for the transmission of EDI messages over telecommunications links.
EDQ: Economic Delivery Quantity - synonymous with an economic order quantity, qv.
EDSAC: The world's first operational computer, commissioned at Cambridge University, UK, in 1949.
Edsel, (The): The name of a now notorious model of car launched by Ford in 1957 that proved to be a small disaster in the marketplace. Ford overspent on the development of the model, and sold so few (110,000 in its lifetime) that the economic losses threatened the company. The Edsel is used in business studies to illustrate that even the slickest marketing and most superior advertising cannot sell a terrible product. The Edsel cost $2000, was 18' long and did 8mpg in traffic. As a classic car, however, Edsels now sell for $100,000!
EEC: European Economic Community.
EEF: The Engineering Employers' Federation, a lobbying body with 6000 member companies ("The Voice of UK Manufacturing Industry"). Visit www.eef.org.co.uk.
Effectivity Date: The date on which an intended engineering change is to come into effect. Bill of materials software is usually able to hold alternative product structures, one structure being the current one and the other being an impending second one, the structure having a specified effectivity date. When the effectivity date is reached, the second structure comes into effect and the first one is abandoned. The subject of an effectivity date is usually bound up with effectivity quantity.
Effectivity Quantity: A problem in making an engineering change on a particular date is usually that in doing so, the old material still in stock is thereby made obsolete, since it is not required in the newly constituted bill of materials. To counter this problem, bill of materials software has been written whereby an engineering change comes into effect not on an effectivity date but when the amount of old stock has fallen to zero (or, at least, to a specified low quantity). One problem with this solution is that material quantities usually do not fall neatly to zero - they fall to a low point somewhere between zero and a replenishment lot quantity, and when they do, the replenishment system triggers the generation of a new purchase order. A second problem is that the small quantity of remnant stock which remains may be uneconomical to use, leading to its scrap. Many inventory controllers abandon effectivity quantities. Instead, they estimate the date the stock will be used up, and take control of the change manually.
EFI: Electronic Freight Invoice.
Efficient Consumer Response (ECR): Quick response to changed requirements in the consumer market, especially in retail. Examples of the activities which must be addressed are: product innovation; replenishment of stocks; and speedy communications.
EFQM: European Foundation for Quality Management. The EFQM's quality model consists of 5 "enablers" (leadership, strategy, people, partnerships and resources) and 4 "results" (customers, people, society and key performance indicators).
EFT: Electronic Funds Transfer.
EFTA: European Free Trade Association, an organisation that the UK applied to join in 1959.
EIS: Executive Information System.
Elasticity (of demand): A term used in economic theory to describe the extent to which the demand for a good will change as its price changes. Goods are said to be price elastic if demand is considerably affected by changes in price (eg cars, furniture and luxury items). They are price inelastic if demand changes very little on a price alteration (eg necessities such as staple groceries). See sub-section 4.1.3 of the free on-line course on purchasing at this site.
Electronic Data Interchange: See EDI.
Elimination of Waste: see Waste.
ELV: End of Life Vehicle.
EMAS: Employment Medical Advisory Service, a UK body, being the medical services division of the Health & Safety Executive, and comprising a national network of 200 or so doctors and nurses undertaking medical examinations of employees referred to it and covered by the Chemical Works Regulations 1922 and others.
EMC: Electromagnetic Compatibility.
EMI: (1) Early Manufacturing Involvement, or (2) Electronic Magnetic Interference, or (3) Electric and Music Industries PLC, the large, well-known music publishing company.
Employee: a person employed by another person or by a company. It is not always immediately obvious if a person is an employee or not. For example, is a boy who is promised £5 if he mows the lawn an employee? What if that boy is the householder's son?
Employee Suggestion Scheme: see Kaizen Teian .
Employment Rights Act (1996): Among other things, it is required under this law to send to a new employee, within two months of his starting work, a written statement containing basic particulars of his contract of employment, such as his rate of pay, hours of work, job title etc..
EMQ: Economic manufacturing quantity. The (ideal) amount of material it is calculated should be manufactured to minimise the overhead cost of set-up (see SMED), the subsequent cost of stockholding and other costs. The EMQ is related to the EOQ, but is in fact an even more dubious concept. For one thing, the amount to manufacture should surely be dictated by the production schedule.
EMS: Environmental Management System, or Electronic Manufacturing Services.
EMU: European Monetary Union, a doomed enterprise. See Euro.
End of Life Legislation: see WEEE.
Engineering Change: An alteration made to the bill of materials. Examples are the replacement of one component by a substitute component; a change in the usage of a component by the higher level part using it; and substitutions and amendments made to whole sub-assemblies, assemblies and raw materials. To preserve product design integrity; to manage material plans and stock effectively; and to maintain financial and cost control, engineering changes must be vetted and permitted by management only at a relatively senior level.
Engineering Change Committee: A group of managers charged by the company with managing engineering changes, the committee's constitution typically comprising personnel from engineering (technical), sales & marketing, production, purchasing and others. If such personnel are not literally on the committee, individual members of the committee may be charged with representing their interests.
EOQ: Economic Order Quantity - qv.
EPC (or ePC): electronic product code, a code assigned to an item through the medium of a radio frequency identification tag. Standards for ePCs are being rapidly developed as RFID tagging becomes more common. EPCs themselves are assigned to companies by EPCglobal, and comprise three sections: (1) a manufacturer's number - the company's number assigned to members by EPCglobal; (2) the product number, or "object class", and (3) a serial number. The serial number is perhaps the most important part of the code - it means that specific, individual products can be identified, eg usable by retailers instead of shop receipts. The format of the EPC follows the GEN2 protocol. See also GTAG.
EPCglobal (or ePCglobal): a division of The Uniform Code Council, an international standards body, which has developed a standard for EPCs in support of RF tagging. EPCglobal is responsible for assigning blocks of numbers to member companies for use in their own internal assignment of ePC tag numbers, within their own RFID applications. ePCglobal has also defined a framework for implementing an RFID solution. See also GEN2 . Also visit www.epcglobalinc.org
EPOS: Electronic Point Of Sale - the recording of retail sales at the till in the store/shop on a data storage device, and its communication to a central controlling point, possibly for the purpose of direct stock replenishment.
Equity: (1) the value of ordinary shares issued by a company (or a person's own particular shareholding); (2) in law, a person's original financial position (see misrepresentation); (3) "fairness". Also see Private Equity.
Equivalent Products: in the process industries, two or more products made at different manufacturing sites may be chemically identical (or very nearly so), but for costing and control purposes may have different product codes and names. In materials planning, one of the equivalent products can be nominated as the "primary product". Total requirements are then expressed in terms of this single primary product, and all stock of the non-primary products is then credited to the primary product's "account".
ERA: Electronic Remittance Advice.
Ergonomics: The science or study of the interaction of a person and a machine or system. For example, the study of the checkout arrangements provided by a supermarket for its check-out personnel, and the study of a new product, such as a newly designed can opener, as it will be operated by a consumer. Attention to ergonomic design can have a significant effect in reducing employee stress in the workplace, thus reducing the incidence of accidents and improving productivity. Areas to consider are : (1) the human system ... eg the need for strength and quick reaction ..: (2) the working environment ... extremes of temperature, dust, fumes: (3) the man-machine interface ... the location of controls, the design of displays; and (4) the total working system ... potential for fatigue associated with required work rates. The following aspects should be taken into account in ergonomic design: Vision, Posture, Layout, Comfort and Work Rate. Ergonomics is a major consideration both in industrial design and in industrial health & safety.
Erotic Gherkin, The: See Building the Gherkin - The Swiss Re* Tower in the City of London, home to the Baltic Exchange. (* 'Re' is pronounced 'Ree', and stands for re-insurance.)
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): (1) The total gamut of manufacturing activities, as with MRPII, and including activities linking distribution sites and suppliers, globally if relevant. ERP is not quite URP (Universal Resource Planning), which includes links with the spiritual world. (2) European Recycling Platform - see WEEE.
Error (true): The difference between a measured value and the corresponding true value. In metrology, true value is almost never known. However, certain well-known measured values such as the universal gas constant R or the acceleration due to gravity g have been established with such thoroughness that the published values of them can be regarded as "true".
Error (systematic): an error in measurement attributable to a wrongly calibrated measuring device, the device giving a reading that is consistently too small or too great.
Error Addback: This technique is also called "consuming the forecast" as it relates to a product made to stock. (But see also Consumed Forecast (Make-to-Order).) When the projected stock balance of a product being evaluated during master schedule management falls below the safety stock level of the product, a rescheduling message is not generated. Safety stock is provided to guard against forecast errors and it is natural that it should be "used" in the course of manufacture and the receipt of orders. If the projected stock balance falls below zero, however, a reschedule-in message is generated so that the master scheduler can review the position. However, a large number of products will carry zero safety stock, since, in general, they are able to provide high stock availability merely from their replenishment lot sizes. Because of the unevenness of the arrival of customer demand, therefore, the projected balances of such products will be continually falling below zero somewhere over their planning horizons, and rescheduling messages will consequently be continually generated. To suppress these messages and so prevent them from flooding the system, a so called "error addback" amount is calculated. This is the sales forecast (to the point we have reached in the month) less the actual demand (also to the point we have reached). Example 1: if the sales forecast in the month to date was 100 units, and the demand in the same period was 80 units, the error addback would be +20 units. Example 2: if the sales forecast in the month to date was 100 units, and the demand in the same period was 130 units so far, the error addback is -30 units. In both examples, a new figure is now introduced, often termed the consumed forecast (*). This consists of the standard sales forecast plus the error addback. In the two examples, the consumed forecasts would be (1) 120 units (100 + 20); and (2) 70 units (100 - 30). The effect on the projected stock balance of using the consumed forecast, or error addback, is to change it to the same value it would have reached if the demand had been precisely as forecast. As a consequence, no rescheduling messages are output.
Escow: To illustrate escrow, consider two football supporters Algernon (who supports Aston Villa) and Bertram (who supports Birmingham City). The two football teams are to meet each other in the cup final on May 3rd, and the two fans each bet the other £500 that his own team will win. Because they are distrustful of each other about paying up, they each now deposit the full £500 with their pub landlord Charles, who therefore acts as a traditional stakeholder and will release the £1000 to the winner. Algernon and Bertram have in fact entered into an escrow agreement, in which each has paid £500 into escrow, Charles being the escrow agent. Note that while there must be a legal contract between A and B (*), there must also be a separate (threeway) contract enjoining C - ie jointly between A, B and C, signed by all three parties. In drawing up the contract involving C, thought must be given to other outcomes than a straight win/lose result. What is to happen if the match is abandoned, or if it proceeds but then has to be replayed at a later date? A real life example of escrow might be an agreement between Company A and Company B, in which A is purchasing an important software package from (small) supplier B. Company A is not given access to the clear, uncrypted software computer code, but is fearful that B might become insolvent, leaving the computer package unsupported. What is deposited in escrow at the offices of a local solicitor C is a copy of the clear, uncrypted code; the "event" under which C will release the code to A is the insolvency of B. Question ... how do you know that the genuine clear code has been deposited with C! (* A legal contract might be difficult to draw up, since gambling debts are not enforceable under law in the UK!)
ESE: Environmentally Sustainable Electronics.
ESFR: Early Suppression, Fast Response. A preferred type of sprinkler system often now installed in warehouses and industry generally. Two superior characteristics of an ESFR system are a faster response time and a heavier water discharge. Faster response eliminates the need with conventional sprinklers for in-rack siting of sprinkler heads. Because ESFR sprinkler systems require access to higher volumes of water, they are not always able to be retrofitted into older warehouses.
Esso: see Standard Oil.
Estoppel (legal): A party to a contract must rely on what is specifically stated in the terms and conditions therein - ie set down in black and white. One party cannot rely on what was in his mind, or what he mistakenly thought were the facts of the situation. For example, in 2001, William Baird PLC were estopped from claiming breach of contract by Marks & Spencer for M & S's termination of business, since there was no formal agreement between the two parties. Baird was estopped from claiming that its cooperation and conduct in previously supplying Marks amounted to a legal contract. This last case is referred to as estoppel by convention; there also exists, however, proprietory estoppel (concerned with land) and estoppel by representation (eg being overpaid by mistake).
Ethics: Rules of conduct governed by the morals, or values, of a company or institution or individual. Morals or values are what are held to be guiding principles, such as adherence to the law, concern for health and safety, the eschewing of racial prejudice etc.. The rules of conduct, or ethics, can consequently be written down as an ethical code - a set of do's and don'ts, governing everyday behaviour in difficult circumstances, such as what a company buyer is to do on being offered an unduly expensive gift by a supplier.
ETO: Engineer To Order.
EU: European Union, an organisation founded on 1950s ideas and lacking in democratic accountability or any semblance of patriotic support by the citizens it puports to represent. The EU seems opposed to free and unfettered competition and the dominance of the competitive market - ie the traditions of the UK (and the US). Instead, it appears to value regulation and prescription - "red tape" which is slowly strangling the ability of its member states to compete in the global marketplace. It may be unwise, however, to criticise it or foretell its eventual doom (hurry the day!), since the EU's Racism and Xenophobia Monitoring Unit, based in Vienna may issue an arrest warrant - see "euro" below . US readers of this Glossary should not be mistaken into thinking the EU is a European version of the US. The ideals of the US, including those of liberty, free enterprise and small (central) government control are the exact opposite of those of the EU, as well as the obvious fact that the unity and history of the US are the complete opposite of the sad, bureaucratic artficiality of the EU. No-one would lay down his life for the EU, even if his bloated EU pension was threatened.
Euro: an ultimately doomed unit of currency that will one day hopefully collapse into its component parts (one size cannot fit all). The currency was made up of the combined currencies of the previous currencies of European Monetary Union members, namely Germany (Deutschmark), France (Franc), Italy (Lire), Holland (Guilder), Spain (Peseta), Portugal (Peseta), Luxembourg (Franc) and Greece (Drachma). Mercifully, the UK did not join. Note that the EU's Racism and Xenophobia Monitoring Unit has stated (June 2002) that it regards criticism of the euro as constituting "monetary xenophobia" - see EU above. See also schwundgeld.
EVM: Earned Value Management.
Evaporating Cloud, The: An analogy in the Theory of Constraints employed by Eliyahu M.Goldratt, the Israeli manufacturing guru also associated with the OPT software. When seeking to resolve a conflict or remove an obstacle to progress, the seeming impossibility of doing so (= the cloud) should be analysed and expressed in precise terms. The assumptions relating to them can then be challenged and, it is hoped, removed one by one (= the evaporation). See the similar notion of The 5 Whys.
Evolutionary Development: In order to eliminate the risks inherent in big-bang implementation (qv), Tom Gilb and others recommend that systems should be designed with very small building blocks, using so-called "open ended system architecture", including small non-complex database structures. More importantly, such systems should be delivered (ie implemented) in very small steps, one small function at a time. By doing so, say its advocates, the risk of implementing something that does not work is virtually eliminated and financial benefit is felt at once from the start. (This philosophy is the direct opposite to the "cut overs" and pilots advocated by the late Oliver Wight in his books on MRP and by the fat cat management consultancies bidding to implement grandiose UK government schemes.)
Evolutionary Operation (EVOP): the running of "experiments" on a process while it is in actual operation. EVOP studies are designed to be conducted by operators on a full-scale manufacturing operation while the process produces (good quality) output.
Exception Logic: See Manufacturing Logic.
Exception Message: See Manufacturing Logic.
Exchange Curve: A graph showing two individual curves. If the two axes of the graph are variable X and variable Y, then (1) for the first curve, as the values on axis X increase, the corresponding values on axis Y decrease, and (2) for the second curve, as the values of X increase, the values of Y also increase. A prime example of an exchange curve is the EOQ curve: as the order size increases, the costs per unit of product ordered which are attributable to stockholding increase, but as the order size increases also, the costs per unit of product ordered attributable to the placing of the order decrease.
Exclusion Clause: An exclusion clause is an attempt within a contract between buyer and supplier to excuse one party or the other from carrying out its contractual obligations or limit the party's liability for having failed to do so. Regardless of the fact that the contract was signed by both parties, first consideration as to the validity of the clause must be whether it really was incorporated in the contract at the time it came into force. (For example, an exclusion notice that first comes to attention of a buyer by being attached to a delivery note is clearly not part of the contract, and can be disregarded.) An exception to this exists if the buyer places repeated, regular orders, and becomes - or should become - well aware of the supplier's exclusion. A second exception exists if both parties are "in the trade" and the exclusion is the custom and practice of business. In deciding whether an exclusion clause is valid, the principal which is applied by the courts is the "main purpose rule". That is, in a written contract, the existence of an express exclusion that excludes one or other of the contractual conditions (but not warranties) appears illogical - if the obligation/condition truly exists, the exclusion must therefore be invalid, and if the exclusion is valid, the obligation/condition does not exist! Consequently, to determine whether an exclusion clause relating to a condition is valid, the context and purpose of the contract as a whole must be taken into account by the court. Note finally that statutory control of exclusion clauses exists through The Unfair Contract Terms Act, qv.
Expectation: A statistical term meaning the average probability of a chance occurrence. For example, there are 11 possible scores from throwing two 6 sided dice. The most frequent occurrence, having 6 possibilities out of a total of 36 possible scores is a score of 7. 7 is thus said to be the expectation. See also partial expectation.
Expeditor: A shop floor worker charged with speeding up the progress of a particular works order, usually by attaching a red ticket to expedite its queue or move priority, and perhaps by discussing with the foreman whether other action could be taken. (See Leadtime Management.)
Expenses: In relation to product costing, expenses are expenditures incurred other than those relating to materials or labour. Examples are heat, lighting and packaging. Expenses may be direct or indirect.
Experience Curve (Cost Experience Curve): see learning curve.
Experiential: pertaining to experience, an adjective used in connection with Bayesian Forecasting and Bayesian Statistics.
Explosion (of the Bill of Materials): The materials planning procedure whereby the plan requirements of products at the top of the bill are successively translated into requirements and plans at lower and lower levels. For example, the plan for a bicycle is exploded to show the need for two bicycle wheels and one frame, whereupon the plan for one of the wheels is exploded to reveal the need for one wheel rim and 150 spokes. The term "explosion" is a colourful term reflecting that the few planned requirements at the top of the bill lead to ever increasing numbers of requirements at the levels lower down. See also Implosion.
Explosive Environment: a physical environment such that there is a danger of explosion is classed either as "Zone 1" - being where an exposive atmosphere is likely to be present, or "Zone 2", where an explosive atmosphere is not likely to be present under normal operating conditions.
Exponential Smoothing - see Single Exponential Smoothing.
Exposures: The number of times the inventory level of an item reaches a low point prior to its replenishment, obtained by A/q, where A is annual usage and q is the replenishment quantity.
Express Terms (legal): Terms of a contract which are expressed - ie written down, rather than merely implied. Implied terms by contrast are not written down - they are assumed to exist either by commonsense or by the custom and practice of the trade. See also implied terms.
External Set Up Time: In changing over a machine from the manufacture of one product to the manufacture of the next, the external set-up time is the duration of time required to carry out activities preparatory to the set-up, but while the machine is still working on the previous product (or after work has commenced on the next product). Examples of external set-up activities which take time to perform are the fetching of the tools that will be needed for the set up, or the putting away or sharpening of tools that have just been used. Contrast Internal Set Up Time. See SMED.
Extrinsic Forecasting: The employment of external intervention in forecasting (eg manual adjustments) and / or the employment of independent data (ie the use of a leading indicator). Independent data are data of the type other than the data being forecast - for example, one might be forecasting sales of paint brushes based on established sales of paint. In this case, the sales figures for paint would be regarded as extrinsic data.
EXW (followed by a named place): Ex-works - one of the 13 Incoterms. The seller has fulfilled his obligations when he places the goods at the disposal of the buyer at the seller's premises or some other previously designated place (such as the seller's factory), with immediate wrapping (ie not wrapped for a journey), not cleared for export and not loaded on any collecting vehicle. If the buyer and seller wish the seller to be responsible for the loading of the goods on departure and to bear the costs and risk of such loading, this should be made clear by adding explicit wording to this effect at the time the contract is agreed. (The recommendation of the ICC however is that the Incoterm FCA should be used instead.) It will lead to smoother warehouse operations if the company despatching the goods avoids the term EXW altogether - the reason is that a major problem arises when the firm collecting the goods (ie usually the buyer) does not collect the goods at the time or on the date it says it will. Consequently, the despatching company must then bear the cost of double handling the goods, as they are shifted out of the way when the vehicle fails to turn up. A better plan long term plan resulting in smoother operations is for the seller himself to take charge of delivery through the Incoterm DDP, making an agreed charge for doing so and organising deliveries to his own convenience.
